Digital adoption: Critical to thriving in an evolving virtual world

Until Covid, most of the work was carried out in an office environment. The lines have blurred since then. Today, workers can work from anywhere, be it office, home or anywhere else. In a world when employees are increasingly dispersed and virtual, working thousands of miles and across multiple time zones, the use of digital tools to collaborate and accomplish work has never been more necessary. In recent years, organizations have realized the benefits of digital adoption and learning experience platforms after having to abandon classroom-based training. As businesses continue to evolve at an ever-increasing pace, the adoption of digital technology will only grow in the coming years. 

As the digital revolution accelerates, our habits and the way we work and live have also changed. In response to this change, people and organizations have been using an increasing amount of software to support and accelerate the digital transformation. However, the level of technology complexity and user technology savviness varies from low to high. All software is not intuitive, and not every user is technologically savvy. As users encounter a variety of technologies, Digital Adoption becomes crucial to guide them through the complexity and achieve desired outcomes.

Digital Adoption is at the heart of transformation strategy

Digital transformation has been at the top of the boardroom agenda for quite some time, but the pandemic has accelerated its pace tremendously. Given that organisations are now deploying more software than ever before, digital adoption becomes the key. Research shows that implementing digital technologies augments company goals by 22%.This will be reflected in increased employee and organizational performance due to user-friendly support and a shorter time to productivity. 

In a survey released by McKinsey in 2020, consulted executives reported that their companies have accelerated the digitization of customer and supply chain interactions by three to four years. Additionally, the share of digital or digitally enabled products in their portfolios has increased by seven years. With Digital Adoption Platform (DAP), enterprises can provide superior user experiences and drive adoption. This becomes particularly relevant during this current pandemic when the need for remote training and support has become ubiquitous.

Evolution of Digital adoption in a virtual world

As digitalization continues to grow, the world is moving towards a self-service economy that adds a new challenge to companies in remaining in "real-time" and closed-loop contact with their customers and users. For organizations to stay in touch with their customers in a progressively more virtual world, solutions must provide visibility into user interactions and at the same time inspire user engagement and solicit feedback to learn, act, and improve.

Virtual worlds limit how you can engage employees effectively. In this circumstance, a DAP can provide employees with support by communicating new process updates. Through interactive widgets such as pop-ups and beacons, DAPs can alert employees of new features or announcements within its application. Also, managing employee queries can be exhausting for support teams as new ways of working and new applications are being introduced. This is where a DAP comes in with centralized support information that is also contextualized to the user's role and location within the application.

Shaping the Future of Digital Economy with DAP

In 2022, as technology continues to evolve, DAPs will become a critical component of digital transformation initiatives. Organizations will deploy DAPs to enhance business operations and workforce efficiency.

Despite the fact that the DAP space has been reshaped by a rapidly changing business landscape, its future is brimming with opportunities. With everything becoming remotely accessible, the next generation of digital adoption platforms will emphasize self-guided training and on-demand guidance with technologies such as robotic process automation and artificial intelligence accelerating employee engagement.

The article has been written by Kapil Jaiswal, Vice President, Product, Whatfix